Racial and ethnic differences in end-of-life costs: why do minorities cost more than whites?

ABSTRACT:

Background

Racial and ethnic minorities generally receive fewer medical interventions than whites, but racial and ethnic patterns in Medicare expenditures and interventions may be quite different at life's end.

Methods

Based on a random, stratified sample of Medicare decedents (N = 158 780) in 2001, we used regression to relate differences in age, sex, cause of death, total morbidity burden, geography, life-sustaining interventions (eg, ventilators), and hospice to racial and ethnic differences in Medicare expenditures in the last 6 months of life.

Results

In the final 6 months of life, costs for whites average $20,166; blacks, $26,704 (32% more); and Hispanics, $31,702 (57% more). Similar differences exist within sexes, age groups, all causes of death, all sites of d

SUBMITTER: Hanchate A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3621787 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature